Hartford Man Who Hit And Killed 3-Year-Old Boy At Pope Park Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison

April 23, 2013|By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

HARTFORD — A 21-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison and five years of probation for a hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of a 3-year-old at Pope Park in May 2011.

Christian Bordelies of Hartford pleaded guilty in December to evading responsibility and negligent homicide with a motor vehicle.

On May 12, 2011, Bordelies was driving through Pope Park in his girlfriend's Buick Regal when he struck Joey Ortiz. The boy was at the park with family and ran into the path of car, prosecutor Edward Narus told Judge Joan K. Alexander.

Rather than stop and help the boy, Bordelies fled. He also called his girlfriend and told her to tell police her car had been stolen. After contacting a lawyer, Bordelies turned himself in later that day.

Narus said he believed Bordelies was driving too fast and not paying attention when the boy ran into the path of his car, suffering fatal injuries. But if the state had taken the case to trial, it ran the risk of having a jury find that the child and the adults supervising him were negligent. Also, Bordelies' girlfriend at the time was not cooperating, Narus said.

That made the plea agreement a reasonable resolution, he said.

The boy's mother, Iris Resto, said she had hoped for a longer prison term. She told the judge that she misses her son and knows he is in heaven.

The judge told Resto she has an angel looking after her and her four other children. She said that she appreciated Resto's pain at losing her son but that the law "makes distinctions your heart can't."

Bordelies said in court that he thinks about the child's death each day and offered an apology.

"I just want to say I'm sorry to the victim's family from the bottom of my heart," he said.

Alexander told Bordelies that she did not think he set out to hurt anyone that day, but when he did he showed no compassion. "You lost your sense of humanity at the time of that accident," she said.

People hit squirrels while driving and stop because it shakes them up, the judge said.

"You hit a child and you didn't stop, and that level of callousness is why the court is punishing you," she said.

Bordelies was awaiting sentencing on the evading and negligent homicide charges when he was arrested on new charges related to a drive-by shooting on Hillside Avenue. On Tuesday, Bordelies pleaded guilty to those charges — tampering with evidence, possession of a pistol without a permit and making a false statement to police.

Bordelies was not the shooter in that case, but he was with a friend who was fatally shot during the incident. He took his friend's gun, disposed of it and has refused to tell police where it is. He initially lied to police about the incident.

His 8-year sentence was for all of the charges, including those related to the shooting.